Graphic Designs

10 Frightening Character Illustrations From Behance That’ll Keep You Up All Night This Halloween

Not sure about you, but I’ll be up all night! Guess my Halloween spirit went too far this time. Oh well, I’m sure those who’ve liked watching Annabelle or The Conjuring will probably fancy these petrifying character illustrations. These illustrators surely have the talent to make things repulsive or outright bloodcurdling. So I went looking for horrifying characters on Behance and found these gruesome illustrations.

The Wild Child


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Okay so Orlando Arocena (the illustrator) thought Chucky wasn’t already freaky enough so he made the crazy doll even crazier. Perhaps the idea was to double the trouble by adding Pennywise on his forehead and embellishing his entire face with voodoo art.

Beauty or the Beast


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They say what’s not beautiful on the outside may be so on the inside but I am not sure this woman illustrated by Tim Tadder feels the same way. I’m sure this look won’t be hard to achieve in real life if your make-up artist is Mirjana Kika Milosevic. This illustration is spine-chilling but fashionable at the same time. It can surely be an inspiration for an eccentric modeling shoot for a magazine.

The Freak Show


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How to bring the evil out of your innocent self? Well learn the art from this character illustration by Vladimir Stankovic. It was already scary to see girls with black hair covering their face that we have to see a ‘smiling’ child with an alien-like underlining. I think this drawing gives you the unexpected – imagine if this was an animation.

Mean Monsters


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Thank goodness this one’s a mummy and not a mommy otherwise who’d like to be brought-up by a zombie. While this illustration by Sedki Alimam isn’t as graphical or skeuomorphic as others, it’ll surely make you uncomfortable in the dark.

Nightmare Nuances



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Correct me if I am wrong, this character looks like the maniac from A Nightmare on Elm Street. The only difference is that Giulia Turconi made him a bit artistic and less repulsive at least visually – but the sense of creepiness is still there.

Not-so Pretty Woman


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Aww looks like someone just said “say cheese”! Tavo Montañez made sure to give the not-so-beautiful person a walking disaster appearance. If someone like this comes to me even in the daylight, I’ll feel a bit uneasy. Her yellow eyes give you the heebie jeebies.

The Zombie World


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You know what? I dare you to see Eugene Smith’s entire zombie series when you’re in your room alone at night with the lights off. He got this effect using Adobe Photoshop, which in my opinion is the most versatile design software to do photo manipulation as long as you’ve got the imagination.

The Weird Chaps


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Look who it is, the psycho from the never-ending series of SAW the movie. Aaron Morales got those spouting cheeks and red eyes spot on in this character illustration. It’s crazy how the reel of events run through your mind when you see colorful drawings of antagonists from your childhood films.

The Bad Boy


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Surely no one’s inviting a clown for their birthday next year unless they want to get bitten to death. Even with Destine Lewis’s polygon illustration of Pennywise, the character is as grotesque as Stephen King describes IT to be. The teeth really stand out and in fact give the psychopath his distorted charm.

Alice In Horror Land


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Valeria Styajkina was probably wandering in a spooky-imaginary world when she bumped into this character and drew him out. Surely when a creature like this will appear at night out of nowhere, you’ll feel like running away as fast as you can.

So which illustration is the scariest?

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Aamina Suleman

A marketing design enthusiast, super passionate about the evolving scope of visual communication. With 3+ years of experience in content marketing, Aamina is driven by insights, inspirations, trends and creativity. She loves to travel, eat khowsuey, sip coffee, and watch mysteries.

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